While a legion of supporters in north London have been basking in title glory this week, other fans in the capital are nervously looking over their shoulder.
The relegation battle between West Ham and Tottenham has come down to the final day, as Spurs were unable to find a point in their penultimate fixture.
Relegation to the Championship would come with serious consequences for whoever makes the drop, with both sides having competed on the continent in recent seasons.
It’s safe to suggest that tensions will be high in both dressing rooms as we reach the pointy end of a challenging campaign.
Roberto Forzoni knows a thing or two about that feeling. The elite sports psychologist has worked with eight Premier League clubs, and has expert insight on how to navigate a relegation battle, having helped inspire the Hammers to their ‘Great Escape’ in the 2006/2007 season.
In an exclusive interview with Oddschecker, Forzoni offered his expertise into the psychology behind pressure in modern day football, discussing relegation battles, dressing-room anxiety, social media pressure and the habits that separate elite performers from everybody else.
West Ham are looking to gazump Spurs and survive the drop on Sunday afternoon
Trailing their North London rivals by two points, and with goal difference strongly favouring Tottenham, things are looking bleak for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. But Forzoni says that negative mindset is exactly what drags a team into the position West Ham find themselves in.
‘The biggest challenge in a relegation battle is that players stop focusing on performance and start focusing on consequences,’ he said.
‘They think about criticism, failure, relegation or what mistakes might mean. Players start playing the situation rather than the ball.’
With the immediacy of social media, players and staff experience overwhelming negativity the moment they step off the pitch.
It can affect the most experienced of players, with skipper Jarrod Bowen admitting his role comes with ‘extra responsibility, extra questions to be answered and people pointing the finger at you,’ in a recent interview with Sky Sports.
‘That changes behaviour,’ Forzoni said.
‘Players stop taking risks, play safer passes and become reluctant to try things that normally come naturally to them. Players become reactive rather than proactive.’
‘Anxiety travels through a dressing room faster than confidence. When physical anxiety and cognitive worry both rise too high, performance doesn’t decline gently – it falls off a cliff.’
Forzoni remembers this happening during his time in East London, adding: ‘At West Ham, even members of staff believed the situation was hopeless. That kind of thinking becomes contagious.’
Tottenham are in control of the relegation battle and need one point to secure survival
As things have declined at the club this season, the pressure has become more prominent on the pitch.
In what was seen as a must-win game, West Ham were comfortably beaten 3-1 by Newcastle United, in a performance Daily Mail Sport’s Craig Hope described as ‘self-sabotage. Angry travelling supporters could even be heard chanting that players were ‘not fit to wear the shirt’.
So, with one match left, how can Nuno and his men turn things around?
‘At West Ham, one of the things we changed was work rate,’ said Forzoni.
‘The players felt they were working hard, but objectively they weren’t matching the opposition.
‘So we set targets around effort and preparation. We wanted to become one of the hardest-working and best-prepared teams in the league.
‘Once the players bought into that mentality, the results changed dramatically.’
If he were in the dressing room today, Forzoni says he would look to shift players’ mentality – Less noise, less fear, more work. Focus on the challenge ahead, not what can happen if you fail.
‘The aim is to clear out the noise and redirect attention onto controllable behaviours,’ he said.
‘At West Ham, I asked the players whether they believed we could stay up. Almost nobody raised their hand. Then I asked whether they believed we could win the next match, and a few players did.
‘So we stopped talking about survival and focused entirely on the next game.
‘That’s often the key psychologically – narrowing the focus and simplifying the challenge.’
Roberto Forzoni worked with the Hammers in 2006 and has revealed the key to survival
Forzoni spoke about ‘learned helplessness,’ where people start believing nothing they do will change the outcome.
And while a Spurs win against Everton will nullify anything West Ham can do, players need to approach this game with their blinders up.
‘That means training properly, preparing well, working hard and sticking to the tactical plan,’ Forzoni said.
‘Once you get players concentrating on controllable factors again, the mindset starts to change.
‘Change what their attention is spent on, and you change the performance.’
